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Moving money from abroad to santander account.

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  • Spark
    Spark Posts: 817 Forumite
    Firstly, for First Direct, I had just a quick look at their website and on their 1st account page they talk about the £10 monthly charge, so, if you think I am misinformed because I read what was on the First Direct website, be my guest.
    If I was looking to move my current account to another bank (which I am not at the moment, as I've got other priorities right now), I would have looked at First Direct with suspicion, because I am not psychic and cannot guess that there is a way around the monthly charge until someone tells me, of course I could come across that information online, or maybe not. But thank you for the information anyway:)
    As for Santander, my "misgivings" might come to the fact that there were enough bad feedbacks from santander customers all over the place to prove it, and even in the uk they were at the bottom of the list for customer service for a long time. It is renown even in Europe that it isn't a good bank to be with.
    There is nothing emotional about it, just an opinion after gathering information.
    As for the answer to the question "which of your requirements are not covered by the accounts described here", it certainly doesn't say whether I could transfer money from abroad into them, or which ones I would be able to, which is what I am looking for primarily.
  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 16,305 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Spark wrote: »
    Firstly, for First Direct, I had just a quick look at their website and on their 1st account page they talk about the £10 monthly charge, so, if you think I am misinformed because I read what was on the First Direct website, be my guest.
    If I was looking to move my current account to another bank (which I am not at the moment, as I've got other priorities right now), I would have looked at First Direct with suspicion, because I am not psychic and cannot guess that there is a way around the monthly charge until someone tells me, of course I could come across that information online, or maybe not. But thank you for the information anyway:)
    As for Santander, my "misgivings" might come to the fact that there were enough bad feedbacks from santander customers all over the place to prove it, and even in the uk they were at the bottom of the list for customer service for a long time. It is renown even in Europe that it isn't a good bank to be with.
    There is nothing emotional about it, just an opinion after gathering information.
    As for the answer to the question "which of your requirements are not covered by the accounts described here", it certainly doesn't say whether I could transfer money from abroad into them, or which ones I would be able to, which is what I am looking for primarily.

    The resources on this site (or other sources of reviews) should tell you the main pros and cons of different bank accounts, so that you can make an informed choice.

    ALL bank accounts allow you to transfer in sums from elsewhere in the EU. As you are aware, ALL banks are equally subject to laws against money-laundering and so might respond to a large incoming transfer by temporarily freezing your account: it would therefore be sensible for you to open a different account to receive your money, so that your day-to-day banking is not affected. Since you have plenty of evidence that the money is from a legitimate source, removing the block on a frozen account should be fairly quick and painless: a bank that is generally competent and that takes customer service seriously is likely to deal with this more rapidly than would a bank like Santander. It is unlikely to be a big deal...
  • Archi_Bald
    Archi_Bald Posts: 9,681 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Spark wrote: »
    Firstly, for First Direct, I had just a quick look at their website and on their 1st account page they talk about the £10 monthly charge, so, if you think I am misinformed because I read what was on the First Direct website, be my guest.

    May be you should have a bit of a closer look because information about the waiver is all on the FD website in cleartext. If you want to assert people that "once again the poorest are getting screwed" (your words) you should make sure that you can substantiate your assertion.

    Hint: have a look at their charges document.
  • noh
    noh Posts: 5,817 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Why not use a currency transfer service such as Transferwise?
    That way your exchange costs are minimised and the incoming payment to Santander will be from a UK bank account.
  • Spark
    Spark Posts: 817 Forumite
    Would it work with transferring money from a European bank account to a uk bank account? I'll have to check with my uncle to see if he can use it and what he thinks about it. The few reviews I have seen about Trasferwise looks positive.
    It's not so much the transfer I am worry about, it's the amount which might bring santander to block my account.
    I think leaving my Santander account out of it and find another saving account would be a lot safer for me. Then, once the money is in another account than the santander one, they can block it if they want until they make their checks and then I'll see what I will do with it at a later date.
    I certainly don't want to be unable to pay my bills and get in trouble.
    I don't really want to open another bank account (at least not now, i'll look into it at a later date). I just want some kind of savings account which won't ask to have my wages in every months. I was thinking of a Nisa type of savings account, but will I be able to transfer straight into it? I would need an Iban and Bic code with it.
  • SuperHan
    SuperHan Posts: 2,269 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    I still don't know what's wrong with the First Direct account? You want to open a savings account with them with a deposit (i.e. not a regular saver), so the £10 is waived.... (assuming that's the account you want. I don't know if they're the best rates etc etc)
  • Archi_Bald
    Archi_Bald Posts: 9,681 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Spark wrote: »
    I don't really want to open another bank account (at least not now, i'll look into it at a later date).
    It is very difficult to see why you wouldn't as a current account seems to perfectly fit your requirements.
    Spark wrote: »
    I was thinking of a Nisa type of savings account, but will I be able to transfer straight into it? I would need an Iban and Bic code with it.
    NISAs, or ISAs, have a max limit of £15,000 this financial year. Is that sufficient for your requirements?

    (N)ISAs are just about the worst place to keep any cash in as they don't even pay as much interest as current accounts do. But in any case, they do not have IBANs and BICs, so your plan wouldn't work anyway. Most normal savings accounts don't either.
  • al25
    al25 Posts: 175 Forumite
    dzug1 wrote: »
    There isn't one - and if there was you wouldn't be allowed to know it.


    Sums over €10000 have to be declared - and I would imagine that in process of making that declaration any account blocking issues would be resolved.

    Billions of transactions occur on a daily basis through the financial system, If everyone had to declare 10k and above Euros, Imagine that....
  • Archi_Bald
    Archi_Bald Posts: 9,681 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    al25 wrote: »
    Billions of transactions occur on a daily basis through the financial system, If everyone had to declare 10k and above Euros, Imagine that....

    Those new-fangled compoooodaah thingies might just do that automatically?
  • al25
    al25 Posts: 175 Forumite
    Archi_Bald wrote: »
    Those new-fangled compoooodaah thingies might just do that automatically?
    Indeed, otherwise all big businesses may run towards the far east.
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